UCLA Sailing Team - Course Croisière EDHEC Team 2011

About Us

The 2011 Bruin EDHEC Team is comprised of current undergrads and recent alumni of the UCLA Sailing Team. The UCLA Sailing Team is a small group of active, dedicated, and passionate students who compete in the Intercollegiate Sailing Association on 14ft Flying Juniors and continuously qualify for the Pacific Coast Championship. The team is a club sport; although we come from one of the world’s best public institutions, we do not receive enough funding to exist without member dues and personal donations. Practices are held two to three times per week at the Marina Aquatic Center in Marina del Rey.

This website highlights our participation in the Course Croisière EDHEC (CCE) - the largest student run sporting competition in Europe. The CCE is an annual event organized entirely by students of the EDHEC Business School in Lille, France. The week-long regatta takes place each Spring in the chilly French Atlantic waters.

Club sailing team makes big waves in international race in France

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Jake Muhleman (front), Daily Bruin news contributor Jake Greenberg, Victor Weisberg, Emelia Pelliccio and other members and recent alumni of the UCLA club sailing team competed in the 43rd annual Course Croisière EDHEC Sailing Cup held in France earlier this month.

In the fall of 2007, the UCLA club sailing team was cruising through its season, competing in regattas up and down California.

Then, one of the team members, French foreign exchange student Chabrol Thibault, told the team about a potential opportunity: go to France and compete in the Course Croisière EDHEC.

Other team members didn’t really take it seriously at first. After all, it would cost about $20,000, would mean sailing in a different boat than they were used to, and would be halfway around the world.

Four years later, the event is a burgeoning annual tradition for the squad. This year, UCLAheaded to Lorient, France from April 9 to 16 to partake in the 43rd edition of the Course Croisière.

“I thought it was incredible. I thought it was a great experience,” second-year biochemistry student Emelia Pelliccio said.

“It was my first time in Europe and really my only way to get to Europe,” fourth-year psychology student Scott Barber said. “And to be able to do something there that I know so well, it was really incredible. Really incredible.”

Those are but a few of many glowing reviews from the team of sailors representing UCLA in France. Because of that, the team has been dedicated to overcoming financial burdens and sending a team to Europe over the past four years.

The Course Croisière is put on by the EDHECBusiness School located in Lille, France. Originally, the event was put on as a business venture by students from the school, and to this day it continues to be entirely student-run.

Though that might seem to be a limitation, the event is one of the largest and most prestigious sailing competitions in France. Over 100 teams from all over the world were present this year, and over 56 boats entered in competition.

With so many people from so many places, EDHEC built a village for all the teams akin to an Olympic village. And while the Course Croisière is a sailing regatta, or a series of races, not every moment can be spent on the water. The rest of the time is spent fraternizing with the other international sailing teams in this makeshift town.

“This is the first time I’ve ever experienced sailors from a different part of the world,” Barber said. “I really enjoyed that, because you kind of feel like everyone knows something together, but we’re from different parts of the world. It really brings people together easily, and the camaraderie that you build is great.”

Over the week in France, UCLA’s sailors couldn’t help but get close to the other teams, particularly the Spanish and Swiss contingents. While language would conceivably be a difficult barrier to cross, it was an almost nonexistent border.

“Most people spoke English pretty well. It’s surprising how well people around the world speak English and how often they use it,” Pelliccio said.

English isn’t the only thing the Europeans know about the United States. Once the UCLA team was in France, it noticed almost immediately that the people there knew who they were. The UCLA brand is so in demand that UCLA’s members found themselves trading their gear for others’ and returned home with little Bruin gear of their own.

While the social aspects of the trip are monumental and some of the most memorable, the Course Croisière, in the end, is an international competition, and that’s the reason so many teams return to France each year.

There are three trophies which teams battle for: the Sea Trophy, the Land Trophy and the Sand Trophy. The Land and Sand trophies involve activities such as running, rock climbing and various beach games, but these trophies are secondary goals for most teams.

The big prize is the Sea Trophy, which is awarded to the strongest sailing team at the regatta. It is comprised of a series of seven races over several days. There are buoy races, in which teams race to a buoy before heading back to port, and long leg races, in which teams race from one port to the next and then back the next day.

This year, UCLA placed 20th out of 56 boats in the Sea Trophy competition. While that places UCLAsquarely in the middle of the pack, that result is fairly spectacular for the team at this stage.

Skipper Jake Muhleman, a UCLA alumnus, said that in previous years UCLA has placed in the bottom 10 to 15 spots.

This year, however, with practices beforehand and a more cohesive crew, he set a goal for the team: “Top 20 was a stretch goal, top half was our realistic goal.”

UCLA faced steep challenges going into the competition. First, the Grand Surprise boats used in the competition are different from the 14-foot Flying Juniors that UCLA usually sails.

The big boats require a crew of six – four more than the Flying Juniors – and the operation of the boat is much more complicated.

Second, many of the competitors in the Course Croisière are professionals. Some of them are even former racers of America’s Cup, one of the largest international sailing competitions.

Despite these obvious setbacks, UCLA has returned year after year and shown improvement. TheEDHEC Business School, which helps to sponsor UCLA’s entry, must be pleased with the growing presence the team is making, as it is one of the very few American teams there.

“UCLA already has a name there,” Muhleman said. “Now it’s about making ourselves known as a presence in the race, as serious competitors.”

Just wanted to let you know we made it home safe and sound, after an exhausting 24+ hours of traveling (5 hours from Lorient to Paris, 2 hours of sleep, 2 hour flight to Amsterdam, 10 hour flight to Memphis, 4 hour flight to LAX...)

Also, something changed with the scores so we wanted to correct our last post-- while we were in 19th place Friday morning, we somehow got bumped to 20th in the final results. Not a big deal though, we are still so happy to have made top 20 this year! We're confident that next year's team can do even better :)

Photos will have to wait until I have more sleep in me and I'm not failing my classes...but keep an eye out for some photo posts in the near future.

Friday, April 15, 2011

After a bit of a late start thanks to long lines and running out of gas for the boat on the way out, we finally got out on the water only to find that there was ZERO wind. We bobbed around for awhile, rafting up with the Swiss, Spanish, and Turkish teams to hang out and eat lunch. After sitting out there for hours, they finally canceled all races for the day at 2pm and we headed back in. Kind of a disappointing way to end the week, but this means that we finished 19th overall, which is really amazing. Our goal was to be top 20 and we accomplished it, so we are really really happy with how the week turned out!

We're currently hanging out in the International Club, waiting for the Swiss to do their food tasting for the rest of the teams-- Raclette! We plan on meeting up with all the other international teams tonight for one last opportunity to hang out before everyone heads their separate ways tomorrow. It's been an incredible week and, as always, it's going to be hard to head home.

Tomorrow we are heading back to Paris for one last night, and then we have an early flight Sunday morning back to the States!

Thanks again to everyone who helped us make it here....especially EDHEC and the international organizers (Simon and Deborah have been absolutely incredible and we couldn't have survived without them!), GG+A, and AnyArt for their support and contributions to the team. We are so appreciative!

Here's to a great 43e Course Croisiere EDHEC, and to the UCLA team who makes the journey next year to carry on the tradition :)

Just checked the latest scores and after yesterday's races we are now in 19th place (out of 56 boats)! We scored a 15 and a 14 yesterday (only got two races in because the wind died in the afternoon) but we were pretty happy with how we did overall. We're hoping to move up a few spots with some decent races today, and we still get to drop one race so we're aiming to get in the top 15 by the end of the day.

We've of course been having an incredible time off the water as well-- last night the Canadians and the Belgians served food to the rest of the international teams (pancakes, poutine, and the most delicious waffles we have ever eaten). It's been really fun getting to hang out with all the international teams! We also had the opportunity to meet Anne Zuccarelli, the associate dean for academic programs at the EDHEC Business School, and thank her for their generous donation to the team and for helping us come back this year. Without EDHEC there is no way we would ever have made it to the race and we are so grateful for all their help!

We're pretty worn out and are all either sick or on the verge of being sick--long days sailing, very little sleep, and trying to hang out with as many teams and people as possible before we have to head back to the real world. But it's been so, SO fun and we can't believe it's our last day of racing already!! We're all dreading the end of the night :(

OK, need to head to the boat and get out there, but hopefully the next time we update we will have some good news!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

We are in 21st place overall!! Just wanted to throw that out there before we head out this morning :) Didn't do our best in the coastal race yesterday so we are hoping to get back into the top 20 with today's races. Will post again soon!